Thursday, November 27, 2008

Southeast Arizona is one of those unique birding areas in the USA where Mexican species extend their range into the USA. I had birded there once before on my own, but I went back to take photographs of the birds and hired a guide to maximize my time.

The first is the Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris). This distinctive bird occurs throughout North America. The black and yellow facial pattern are the ID mark. The horns are just tufts that are only seen if a breeze makes then stand out. The photo is of a male. The female has a less boldly patterned face.

There were several members of the sparrow family – 2 of which were shown in the previous bulletin.

The Lark Sparrow (Chondestes grammacus) has only a black spot on his breast – no streaking. His boldly patterned face is the other field mark.This is a 1st winter bird. The pattern is more muted than the adult. There is buff color in the stripe above and behind the eye. The adult would have the stripe all white.

The Lark Bunting (Calamospiza melanocorys) is a large (7”) sparrow. The breeding male is unique as he is all black with large white wing patches. In winter the male is a dark streaked sparrow with black and white stripes on the wing. Even with his head turned away, you can ID this bird in the first photo. The second shows a first winter male. He has a patterned face resembling the Lark Sparrow above, but has a large bill, and has black on his wings with buff rather than white.

We saw several warbler species including this female Black-throated Gray Warbler (Dendroica nigrescens). This was only me second sighting of this bird. The male has a black throat but in the female it is grayer. The unusual marking is the little yellow spot on the face. It can be seen in the first photo. But in the second she has turned to face the camera and the sun caught the 2 spots and lit them up like headlights.

I was also lucky to get a photo of this Greater Roadrunner (Geococcyx californianus) perched in a bare tree at the side of the road. I got out of the car and just took the photos with the camera resting on the car for support, so as not to frighten the bird.

The Rock Squirrel (Spermophilus variegates) is a ground dwelling squirrel that lives in tunnels in the ground. Occasionallly they will climb low trees. I had tried to photo several on the ground, but they always ran out of sight before I could get the caera ready. Well fortunately, we found one in a small bare tree beside the road as we were driving and I got this photo. He has a mottled pattern on his back.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Southeast Arizona is one of those unique birding areas in the USA where Mexican species extend their range into the USA. I had birded there once before on my own, but I went back to take photographs of the birds and hired a guide to maximize my time.

John Cassin (1813-1868) was a scientist and ornithologist. He was appointed honorary curator at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences in 1842 where he studied the world’s largest collection of bird skins from the USA and around the world. As he was considered the foremost expert at the time, he also received specimens from the Smithsonian for identification. He described almost 200 new species. He only collected a single new species in the field (Philadelphia Vireo), but did all his work on the preserved skins. 5 western USA species have been named for him. Cassin’s Sparrow, Finch, Kingbird, Vireo and Auklet. The Cassin’s Vireo he initially described, but it was lumped into the Solitary Vireo complex, until about a decade ago, it was split and received full species status.

I had not seen any of the 5 species until 1 year ago when I started traveling to photograph the birds. In Oct 2007, I found the Cassin’s Sparrow in the south Texas. In June 2008, I saw the Cassin’s Finch in the Sierra Mountains of California, and on this trip to Arizona, I found the kingbird and vireo.

Cassin’s Kingbird (Tyrannus vociferans) is similar to Western and Tropical Kingbirds, but the gray of the throat and chest is much darker. Because the gray is so dark, they show a white malar patch on the face. They are easy to see as they sit on wires etc in the open.

I also found another vireo species, Hutton’s Vireo (Vireo huttoni). This is a tiny (5”) drab greenish-gray bird that occurs in 2 separate populations – Pacific coast and Mexican that extends into SE Arizona. The hooked beak ID it as a vireo.

The Ferruginous Hawk (Buteo regalis) is a large (24”) buteo of the arid southwest USA. It has reddish back and wings, with a white chest and abdomen. The legs are reddish as well. Here are a couple of photos of the same bird on a power pole. I n the second photo, you can see a little of his reddish legs.

Another SE Arizona specialty bird is the Yellow-eyed Junco (Junco phaeonotus). It is a gray bird with reddish back, black facial mask and bright yellow eye. Here are 2 photos, with the second a close-up head on. The bird looks almost comical with the bright yellow eye.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Southeast Arizona is one of those unique birding areas in the USA where Mexican species extend their range into the USA. I had birded there once before on my own, but I went back to take photographs of the birds and hired a guide to maximize my time.

There are 3 species of woodpeckers that are almost unique to Arizona. One doesn’t occur in the Patagonia area (Gilded Flicker). We didn’t find the Arizona Woodpecker despite diligent searching high in the mountains, but we easily located the Gila Woodpecker (Melanerpes uropygialis). It has the typical zebra-backed stripes like the Red-bellied Woodpecker. The male has only a small round red skull cap like patch on his head and the female has no red at all. They also have a bright yellow belly – a field mark not shown in the books, but very noticeable. Here are a photo of the male and the then the female in a hackberry tree.

We located 2 birds in the chickadee family. Both are very local to the area and both were life birds for me.

The Mexican Chickadee (Poecile gambeli) lives only in the Chiricahua Mountains of SE Arizona along the New Mexico border. As they are not migratory, you have to go there to find them. It is like most chickadees with a black cap and throat. What is different about this bird is the throat patch extends down onto the chest and the flanks are gray.

The other 2 were smaller screech owls. The Whiskered Screech-Owl (Otus trichopsis) is a small (7.25”) Mexican species that just barely makes its range into the mountains of southeast Arizona. He has vertical black stripes with some horizontal cross hatches on the breast. Compare this to the other owl below.

The last one was the slightly larger (8.5”) Western Screech-Owl (Otus kennicottii). This owl occurs all across western North America. He perched nicely on a bare branch for his photo. Notice he just has faint vertical stripes but no cross hatching.